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Who really said it

Kissing Marilyn Monroe Is Like Kissing Hitler

Not Marilyn Monroe — actually Tony Curtis Tony Curtis 1925–2010 · American actor · Monroe’s co-star in Some Like It Hot
Disputed In copyright

The line was said about Marilyn Monroe, not by her. Tony Curtis produced it after the kissing scene he played with Monroe in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot was shot, and Quote Investigator concludes he really did say it ↗ — the earliest citation it documents is a Cumberland Times film column of 22 May 1960. Curtis denied the remark for a period, then owned it in a 2008 Time interview ↗, calling it sarcasm aimed at crew who kept needling him.

Last verified 7 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Kissing Marilyn Monroe Is Like Kissing Hitler” Kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler. — Tony Curtis, on the kissing scene in "Some Like It Hot"; earliest citation documented by Quote Investigator is the Cumberland Times, 22 May 1960. Not a Marilyn Monroe quote — it was said about her. quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Marilyn Monroe. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The estate of Tony Curtis; the 1960 press reports remain with their original publishers). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Tony Curtis — American actor · Sweet Smell of Success, Some Like It Hot. Theme: "Kissing Marilyn Monroe Is Like Kissing Hitler". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Kissing Marilyn Monroe Is Like Kissing Hitler". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line is actually documented

Said by
Tony Curtis — about Monroe, not by her
Occasion
After the kissing scene was filmed for Billy Wilder’s comedy
Film
Some Like It Hot
Earliest citation documented
Cumberland Times, 22 May 1960, p. 26, col. 3

Curtis, who has no love for Miss Monroe, said after the scene was filmed that ‘kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler.’ Cumberland Times, 22 May 1960

As transcribed by Quote Investigator from a Cumberland Times column rating the best screen moments of the previous year — which had just given Curtis and Monroe its best-movie-kiss award. Note the period wording: “kissing Marilyn,” not the modern full-name form.

Quote Investigator: Kissing Marilyn Monroe Is Like Kissing Hitler

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator’s 2010 investigation ↗ gathers nine dated citations and concludes that Curtis did utter the words after the kissing scene was filmed — only his reason for saying them stays unclear.
  • The earliest of those citations is a Cumberland Times film column of 22 May 1960; a Deseret News interview of 3 June 1960 then has Charlton Heston joking, “I’d really like to do a picture with Marilyn … even if Tony Curtis says kissing her is like kissing Hitler,” as reproduced by Quote Investigator ↗.
  • Curtis confirmed the line himself in a 17 October 2008 Time Q&A ↗: watching the rushes, crew members needled him about the kiss, and he snapped back with it — “I was just pissed at them bringing it up like that.”
  • Wikiquote files the short form under Curtis ↗ — “It’s like kissing Hitler” — sourced to Maurice Zolotow’s 1960 biography Marilyn Monroe, p. 323. Monroe’s own Wikiquote page carries no version of the line at all.
In copyright

This is a spoken remark from around 1959, first documented in print in 1960 — far too late for public domain under the pre-1931 rule, so we do not treat it as free. In practice a six-word quip is quoted as fair use, and both the speaker’s estate and the newspapers that first printed it have a claim on the text; nothing here should be read as clearing it for reuse.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

How this ends up filed under “Marilyn Monroe quotes”

This is the rare case where a famous name attracts a quote that is not merely unsourced but grammatically about her. Because her name sits inside the sentence, aggregators and social posts file it in her column — and the wording drifts as it travels.

Marilyn Monroe Not her words

Monroe never said this; she was its target. Her only documented response is an August 1962 Life interview in which she refuses to name the actor and says “I think that’s his problem” ↗. Her Wikiquote page carries no such line in any section.

“Kissing Marilyn Monroe is like kissing Hitler” Later expansion

The period reports are shorter. The May 1960 Cumberland Times item has “kissing Marilyn was like kissing Hitler,” a July 1960 James Bacon column has simply “It’s like kissing Hitler,” and Curtis’s own 2008 Time retelling ↗ uses “Kissing Marilyn.” The full-name version is a modern tidy-up.

Tony Curtis Denied, then admitted

Quote Investigator notes a 2001 Guardian report that Curtis had since denied the remark ↗ — which is why some retellings call it apocryphal. He reversed himself in 2008, and Legends Revealed rates the story “Apparently True” ↗.

Tony Curtis said it, about Marilyn Monroe, around the filming of Some Like It Hot; the earliest citation Quote Investigator documents is 22 May 1960 ↗, and Curtis confirmed the words were his in 2008.

Context

Why the line stuck

Some Like It Hot opened in March 1959 with the most photographed woman alive in it, so “what was it like to kiss Marilyn Monroe?” became the only question anyone asked Tony Curtis. His six-word answer travelled further than any performance in the picture: within a year it was being repeated in American newspapers, and by June 1960 Charlton Heston was using it as a punchline in his own interviews ↗.

Monroe heard about it. In a Life magazine interview whose cover date fell two days before her death, she declined to name the actor and said the problem was his, not hers — a reply Quote Investigator reproduces alongside the 1960 press reports. Curtis spent decades first denying the line and then explaining it, telling Time in 2008 that he snapped it at technicians who were needling him during a screening of the rushes.

“Well, I think that’s his problem.” — Marilyn Monroe, Life, 3 August 1962

How Curtis’s story changed

1960–1965, in the press: the remark is reported straight, as evidence that Curtis resented Monroe’s conduct on set. A 1965 Pittsburgh Press interview has him repeating it and adding “I didn’t like her. She was a really mean person.”

2001: a Guardian piece on Monroe notes that Curtis is widely believed to have made the comparison — and that he has since denied it.

2008: Curtis tells Time he did say it, in irritation at crew members needling him after the rushes, and elsewhere that Monroe “was amazing to kiss” and he “was making a joke.” Quote Investigator lays the versions side by side and declines to pick a motive.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Truth Work

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Origin: Kissing Marilyn Monroe Is Like Kissing Hitlerquoteinvestigator.com

The anchor investigation: nine dated citations from 1960 to 2009, and the conclusion that Curtis did say it.
Tony Curtis — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists “It’s like kissing Hitler” under Curtis, sourced to Maurice Zolotow’s 1960 Monroe biography, p. 323.
Q&A: Actor Tony Curtis (2008)time.com

Curtis in his own words: he said it after a screening of the rushes, out of irritation at being needled.
Did Tony Curtis Say Kissing Marilyn Monroe Was Like “Kissing Hitler”?legendsrevealed.com

Independent fact-check of the legend; verdict “Apparently True,” tracing Curtis’s denial and later admission.
Some Like It Hot (1959)en.wikipedia.org

The film behind the remark — Billy Wilder’s comedy with Monroe, Curtis and Jack Lemmon, released 19 March 1959.

The man who actually said it

Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis

1925–2010 · American actor · Sweet Smell of Success, Some Like It Hot

Born Bernard Schwartz in New York in 1925, Tony Curtis was one of the biggest American screen stars of the 1950s and early 1960s, with a career spanning six decades and more than a hundred films. He was Oscar-nominated for The Defiant Ones and is best remembered for Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959), the film that produced this quip. He died on 29 September 2010.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented print citation

Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: Kissing Marilyn Monroe Is Like Kissing Hitler,” October 4, 2010 (bibliographical notes updated March 11, 2025), citing Cumberland Times (Cumberland, MD), “Newsman Who Has Viewed 8,000 Films Lists Best,” May 22, 1960, p. 26, col. 3.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Kissing Marilyn Monroe Is Like Kissing Hitler’?” Last verified 7 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/kissing-marilyn-monroe-is-like-kissing-hitler/

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